Composing and cataloging item configuration data

A configurable item description comprising:

• at least one configurable attribute, the attribute being associated with a section of a part number, the part number section having a plurality of alternative section values;
• a plurality of alternative descriptions, one for each section value, the descriptions being associated with the respective section value;
• and
• a part number formula defining the structure and format of a sequence of characters identifying a configured item, the part number formula including parameters for applying a section value for each configurable attribute.

A configurable item description comprising:

• a base item part number having a plurality of sections, at least one of the sections being configurable, the configurable section having a base value, the base item part number corresponding to a base item;
• a plurality of selectable alternative values for the configurable section, the alternative values being selectable to configure the base item part number into a configured item;
• a base item description to describe the base item;
• and
• a plurality of descriptions, one for each alternative configurable section value.

A method comprising:

• identifying a base item;
• identifying a part number for the base item;
• breaking the part number into sections, each section corresponding to an attribute of the base item;
• determining which of the part number sections relate to configurable attributes of the base item;
• listing a plurality of selectable part number section values for the configurable attributes;
• listing descriptive information for each of the selectable part number section values;
• linking the descriptive information to the corresponding selectable part number section value;
• generating a part number formula to define the configurable sections and associate configurable sections to the corresponding list of values;
• generating a description formula to define a configurable description and associate descriptive information with corresponding configurable selectable part number values;
• and
• adding the base item part number, values list, descriptive information list, part number formula and description formula to an electronic catalog.

A machine-readable medium having stored thereon data representing instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

• identifying a base item;
• identifying a part number for the base item;
• breaking the part number into sections, each section corresponding to an attribute of the base item;
• determining which of the part number sections relate to configurable attributes of the base item;
• listing a plurality of selectable part number section values for the configurable attributes;
• listing descriptive information for each of the selectable part number section values;
• linking the descriptive information to the corresponding selectable part number section value;
• generating a part number formula to define the configurable sections and associate configurable sections to the corresponding list of values;
• generating a description formula to define a configurable description and associate descriptive information with corresponding configurable selectable part number values;
• and
• adding the base item part number, values list, descriptive information list, part number formula and description formula to an electronic catalog.

A method of defining an item description using an electronic catalog comprising:

• finding a base item;
• retrieving a base part number for the base item, the base part number having configurable sections;
• for each configurable section, retrieving a list of alternative descriptions for the configurable section;
• selecting a description from the lists of alternative descriptions for each configurable section to define a configuration of the item;
• applying the selected descriptions to identify part number values for each configurable section corresponding to the selected descriptions.
• applying the identified part number values to a part number formula to generate a part number for the defined item configuration.

A machine-readable medium having stored thereon data representing instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

• finding a base item in an electronic catalog;
• retrieving a base part number for the base item, the base part number having configurable sections;
• for each configurable section, retrieving a list of alternative descriptions for the configurable section;
• selecting a description from the lists of alternative descriptions for each configurable section to define a configuration of the item;
• applying the selected descriptions to identify part number values for each configurable section corresponding to the selected descriptions.
• applying the identified part number values to a part number formula to generate a part number for the defined item configuration.

A method of transferring an item having multiple configurations to an electronic catalog, the method comprising:

• maintaining an item in a first data format as a single item having at least one configurable attribute, the configurable attribute being associated with a plurality of alternative values, each value having a corresponding description;
• converting the item into a plurality of separate items in the first data format, each item corresponding to a different alternative value of the configurable attribute;
• and
• loading the separate items into a catalog.